Shopping at restaurants is different. Those are more of an even trade, unless the shop is so complicated that one cannot enjoy a meal. I have shopped plenty of the more expensive fast food burger places etc., and I do so for the meal. However, the few steak shops I have seen in my market did not reimburse all of the expenses. The fine dining ones are just too complex for me to enjoy, even with a companion helping.
I know I am right about my "conjecture" based on many of the posts I have read on Mystery Shopping Forum. I am not referring to any of the responses here, though.
Aside from the poorly written ones, there are ones like the one post from some years ago in which a woman wrote that she does the shopping because she likes to drive around and listen to audio books. I responded that gasoline must be very cheap where she lives. I factor in not only my time but also travel expenses. I have taken advantage of numerous phone only shops, but not if they only pay up to ten dollars. For example, I have seen shops for which one had to use an assigned complicated story, and they only paid ten dollars. Ten dollars was not worth the effort since a detailed report went along with them.
I do not understand how people can accept the depth to which the fees have plummeted over the past year and a half. However, I only search for opportunities in my vicinity, so my opinion is for...my vicinity. Of course, I cannot provide examples. I wish that I could. I'd say out of all of the companies for which I have shopped over the past decade or so, there is only one that is regularly still worth it.
Speaking of beef, the grocery store prices in my part of the US have gone way north of ten dollars a pound. There is one pizza chain that is charging $11.99 for a six inch or so Italian Beef sandwich, not including fries. Most of the pizza places are charging well over $20.00 for a 14 inch thin crust—sausage, green pepper, onion, and mushroom pizza.